February 1

Man, the weeks in January flew by! I can’t believe January is already over. Here are some events coming up in February and early March:

February 2 Our class is joining the HS for movie day and Groundhog day.

February 4 The Super bowl! (Our class isn’t celebrating this.)

February 14 Valentines Day

February 19 No school (unless we have a storm makeup day).

February 28 Science Fair

March 1 Parent teacher conferences

March 2 No school (again unless we have a storm makeup day).

As you can see, it’s a busy month!

Yesterday I changed our classroom schedule. I have moved math to be in the morning instead of after lunch. The main reason I did this is because they are a lot more calm in the morning rather than after recess. Plus, after lunch recess most of the students are so flustered and mad about recess that it is hard for them to shift their focus on math. I think it will be a successful change to our classroom.

I have created a new routine for math. So, instead of doing their practice and then turning it in for me to check, then fix their mistakes… I’ve changed it so that they can only do 3 problems and then I check their answers. If they are wrong, they will fix them immediately before they can move on. This prevents speeding through them, getting so many wrong that they lose confidence and feel intimidated, practicing bad habits throughout the entire practice page, and they feel less pressure to fix so many mistakes. Overall, I think it will be a great change to our classroom and will improve our math scores.